■ China
Two jailed for bad baby food
Two factory officials have been jailed for producing a baby formula so low in nutrition that it killed one baby and left others dangerously malnourished, state media reported yesterday. The men were found to have knowingly produced the substandard formula marketed under the brand name Lezichun, which caused the death of a baby girl in the eastern province of Anhui and sickened others last year, the official Xinhua news agency said. The girl was one of more than 200 infants who suffered malnutrition after drinking phony formula in Anhui, where investigators found the sale of counterfeit milk powder was widespread.
■ China
Eight killed in mine blasts
Eight people were killed in a northern iron ore mine after rival workers intent on sabotage set off explosions in the mine pit, state press reported yesterday. In an apparent attempt to force a work stoppage at the Baota No. 4 mine in Shanxi Province, workers from a neighboring mine set off explosives in the Baota pit last Thursday, the Beijing Times said.
■ New Zealand
Boy charged with murder
A 14-year-old boy was ordered yesterday to stand trial for murder for allegedly tossing a concrete block from an overpass that hit a car on the highway below, killing the driver. The 8kg slab smashed into the car, driven by Chris Currie, 20, killing him instantly on Aug. 19. Three passengers suffered minor injuries after the car crashed. The boy, who under the law cannot be named, said he would plead guilty if prosecutors filed a lesser charge of manslaughter. He is one of the youngest people to face a murder charge.
■ Australia
Arsonist torches himself
A bungling arsonist who allegedly tried to torch a hairdressing salon ended up setting himself ablaze, a court in Brisbane heard yesterday. Shane Long was allegedly hired to set fire to the salon by neighboring shop owner Erich Sorger. Prosecutor Kate Youngson told Brisbane District Court that Sorger set fire to his TV repair shop in March last year and then hired Long to set fire to the hairdressing salon, in a possible attempt to throw police off the scent. But Long, who allegedly was paid A$400 (US$300) failed on three separate occasions and ended up torching his own clothes with a gasoline bomb, Youngson said. He was not injured. Long has been charged with being an accessory to the arson.
■ Singapore
Wives told of HIV cases
The Health Ministry has started informing spouses of HIV-positive patients directly about their partners' disease in order to curb the spread of AIDS, the ministry said. "Previously, some wives were not aware of their spouse's HIV status and so they were at risk of the HIV infection. Since July this year, we have informed the wife when the infected husband had not informed her of his positive HIV status," said Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan's in his speech on Monday, which was posted on the ministry's Web site. The letters, which had been hand-delivered to 41, advised spouses to get screened for HIV and give them information about counselling services.
■ Vanuatu
Major eruption feared
Authorities are evacuating thousands of villagers from homes near a volcano spewing ash and steam on the island of Ambae amid fears of a major eruption, officials said yesterday. Mount Manaro began tossing out ash and a plume of steam on Nov. 27. Local volcanologist Douglas Charlie said the volcano "is one of the most dangerous in the world as it's situated below a lake." Lake Vui, which lies in the crater of Mount Manaro, is being forced up toward the rim, sparking fears of a mud flow if the lake wall bursts, which could drown the villages that surround the mountain.
■ Japan
Young workers unmotivated
Almost three-quarters of people in their 20s and 30s have no motivation when it comes to their jobs and half would quit if they had the chance, a survey has found. The Nomura Research Institute poll released this week highlights a change in attitudes to work in Japan, once famous worldwide for corporate warriors prepared to sacrifice personal gain for the greater good. In the survey of 1,000 young workers, unmotivated respondents felt their jobs lacked "social significance" and a sense of personal development. According to a Nomura spokeswoman,"Compared to the fast growth years when people had to work to eat, people today have satisfactory living standards."
■ Sri Lanka
Eleven killed in attack
At least 11 persons, including five soldiers, were killed in the north and east of the country in three separate attacks by suspected Tamil rebels, raising tension in the two areas, military officials said yesterday. The five army personnel were killed in Irrupalai, Jaffna, 410km north of Colombo, yesterday morning in a claymore mine explosion set off against a tractor carrying a group of soldiers. The attack was the second major incident since Sunday when another six soldiers were killed in a similar mine blast in Jaffna.
■ United States
Parakeets being destroyed
Bird lovers are upset over an effort by an energy company to remove 103 large nests from its utility poles and destroy the birds. United Illuminating Co, which serves about 320,000 customers in southern Connecticut, says the 90kg nests cause fires and blackouts. The monk parakeets are native to South America, and started establishing colonies in the wild across the Northeast about 40 years ago after pet owners released them. United Illuminating captures the birds with a net and turns them over to the Department of Agriculture, which kills them with carbon dioxide.
■ Italy
Panettone copyrighted
Italians are attempting to preserve the authenticity of their famous Christmas dessert bread panettone by copyrighting the recipe. Manufacturers in other countries who change the ingredients or do not follow the traditional methods of baking will have to call their products by generic names such as "sweet festive bread" or "sweet Christmas cake." The authorities hope that regulating the use of the word panettone will safeguard the identity of a delicacy created in the Renaissance era.
■ South Africa
Luggage being stolen
Johannesburg International Airport has stepped up security after a recent spate of luggage theft. The state-owned Airports Company SA had installed automated baggage management machines that scan, sort and then deliver baggage to the right flights, limiting human contact to check-in and loading the bags into containers to be taken to the aircraft. Several carriers and passengers have complained that their luggage had been tampered with or been stolen at the airport. National carrier South African Airways recently confirmed that it had paid 15 million rand(US$2.4 million) to reimburse passengers who had lost their luggage. The most commonly stolen items include laptops, clothes, cellphones, shoes and jewelry.
■ Denmark
Cabbie bites finger in fight
A taxi driver bit off the tip of a man's finger in a brawl over how many people could fit in the cab. The dispute started early on Sunday morning, when a group of five men hailed a taxi in downtown Odense. Police said the fight started when the driver insisted he could only take four passengers. The 48-year-old man claimed he grabbed the driver by the collar after he spat at him. The driver, who was bruised, said the man grabbed him by the jaw with his left hand and punched him with other hand. The driver claims that he accidentally bit off the tip off the man's ring finger in the commotion.
■ United Kingdom
This gift keeps on giving
For a mere £1,250 (US$2,166), it is possible to harvest stem cells from the umbilical cord at birth and store them frozen for up to 25 years. "Stem cells are not just for life -- they're for Christmas," said Shamshad Ahmed, managing director of Smart Cells International, a company offering stem cell gift certificates this year. He has sold the idea to 50 customers so far -- mainly grandparents who want their descendants to have access to stem cells' healing powers in the event of illness or injury. The cells are separated from the blood of the umbilical cord, cryogenically frozen and stored at minus 180 degrees Celsius.
■ United States
Murder charges dropped
The Army dropped murder charges against an officer accused of giving soldiers in his platoon permission to kill two Iraqi civilians. Second Lieutenant Erick Anderson, 26, of Twinsburg, Ohio, could have gotten life in prison if convicted. "Today's a pretty good day," Anderson said on Monday in a telephone interview. All charges were dropped after an Army investigator who presided over a hearing last month recommended that Anderson not face a court-martial. At the hearing, one soldier who had accused Anderson changed his story, and another refused to testify. Anderson was a platoon leader in an infantry regiment in August last year. Four men in his 36-member platoon were convicted of murdering unarmed Iraqis.
■ United Kingdom
Shack nets Turner Prize
An artist who dismantled a wooden shack, converted it into a paddle boat and sailed it before turning it back into a shack was on Monday awarded Britain's most prestigious -- and often controversial -- art award, the Turner Prize. The ?25,000 (US$43,000) award was given to English-born Simon Starling for Shedboatshed, or Mobile Architecture No 2, which started life as a shack in the Swiss town of Schweizerhalle. Starling took it apart, turned it into a boat and paddled it 11.2km down the Rhine to Basel, where he rebuilt it. Starling, 38, said he was "a bit flabbergasted" to win. "I don't like to be thought of as eccentric," he said.
■ Egypt
Opposition claims detensions
The leading opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, accused the government on Monday of detaining more than 1,250 supporters during ongoing legislative elections, while a press watchdog claimed police stopped film crews -- including a US-funded TV station -- covering the polls. The criticisms are the latest in a series of complaints against Egypt's government for failing to conduct safe and fair elections since they began Nov. 20. "Police are now chasing Brotherhood members in the streets, if they don't find them at home," the Islamist group said in a statement.
■ Nigeria
Panel to investigate governor
A judge on Monday established a panel to investigate allegations of corruption by the governor of oil-producing Bayelsa state, who fled money-laundering charges in London last month. Bayelsa Chief Judge Emmanuel Igoniwari said the panel had three months to investigate eight charges levelled at Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha by some state legislators in an impeachment notice. "You should never allow yourselves to be kicked or tossed about because you will incur the wrath of Bayelsans, Nigerians and the Almighty God," Igoniwari told the seven-member panel at its inauguration in the state capital Yenagoa on Monday.
■ Iraq
20 bodies found
Police said yesterday they had found the bodies of 20 people dumped in two separate locations in an area of western Iraq well-known for insurgency violence. Eleven men in civilian clothes were found on Monday dumped next to the main highway that links Baghdad to the border with Jordan in Iraq's west, police said. The bodies were found near the town of Rutba, 370km west of Baghdad, in the mainly Sunni Arab desert province of Anbar. The bodies all had their hands tied and the men appeared to have been killed three days ago. Their identities were not clear.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
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